[Korean Drama] "When Life Gives You Tangerines" is a Masterpiece That Perfectly Captures "What Exists Between People"

The Korean drama "When Life Gives You Tangerines" on Netflix is an outstanding human love story that encompasses various forms of love, including romantic love, familial love, neighborly love, and love for one's hometown.

It depicts the human drama spanning several decades, from the time a girl named Ae-sun (played by IU) and a boy named Gwan-sik (played by Park Bo-gum) grow up on Jeju Island, fall in love, get married, have children, and eventually see their children leave the nest as the couple grows old.

The brilliance of this drama lies in the feeling that as the episodes progress, the history shared with the characters accumulates. As the protagonist's life moves forward, there are more and more moments where a "certain point" in the past and the "present" are suddenly connected by a line.

That "one word," "one action," or "one choice" can be a gift from the past or a consequence of it. The characters' lives continue to move forward while realizing that no single event happened by chance, but rather that the lives of many people are intertwined.

While the information flooding the modern world is biased toward "what is happening now," we should be able to realize that our words and actions today are essentially influenced by someone else. We live in the present while inheriting the words of curses or encouragement we received in the past, and we connect them to the future.

I believe this is a drama that anyone who has parents, has become a parent, or holds complex feelings toward their family will find scenes to resonate with.

(Note: The following contains spoilers for the second half)

In the first half of the story, there is a scene where a loving couple has three children and loses their youngest, who was at their most adorable age, in an unfortunate accident. The way their despair deeply affected the remaining children only becomes apparent years later.

The depiction of the "hole in the heart" that never fills, even as life matures, made me unable to help but think of my own father and mother.

This is because my parents, who lived happily in a town of sea and tangerines, lost a child (my younger brother) to an infectious disease that was prevalent at the time. My mother's childcare diary, filled with beautiful handwriting, remains blank after the last page, where words of regret were scribbled messily.

According to what my mother told me later, in the depths of her despair, she fell into the mindset that "maybe God took him because I wrote in the childcare diary too carefully."

Next to the grave where our ancestors sleep, there is a small Jizo statue with a smile on its face, and my father polishes the entire statue with clean water and offers flowers whenever he has the chance.

Rather than "overcoming sadness" or "forgetting the past," the sight of the couple in "When Life Gives You Tangerines" living together with their past memories and sorrows while leaning on each other as fellow sufferers was all too real for me, and I wiped my face with a thick towel many times during the second half of the story.

In the show, there is a scene where the protagonist couple's daughter gives birth. Seeing the couple caring for their daughter before their grandchild reminded me of my parent who, when my childcare was at its busiest, said, "Of course, my grandchild is incredibly cute. But still, my child (you) is more precious to me," and after finishing the drama, I ended up calling my parents' home.

"When Life Gives You Tangerines" allows you to vicariously experience the protagonist's life, depicting through gem-like lines and scenes the parental heart that thinks of their child, the feeling of a child who feels suffocated by that heavy parental love, and what lies behind the troublesome behavior of a mother-in-law, so if you have the chance, I hope you will watch it slowly.